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Used Newspaper Often Is Recycled into Building Insulation,packaging Materials,and Other

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Used newspaper often is recycled into building insulation,packaging materials,and other products.At present,there is a "glut" of used newspaper today in the United States.As a result,recycling centers are refusing to pay for used newspaper anymore,even though the price of used newspaper used to be about $.02 per pound.(Recycling centers continue to take used newspaper,without payment,from environmentally conscious consumers.)The "glut" is also causing consumers to throw out large quantities of used newspaper in their trash,where it ends up in landfills.Since these landfills are becoming costly to build and maintain,local governments are seeking ways to encourage recycling and reduce the amount of used newspaper that ends up in landfills.Your task is to analyze this problem in the context of the following numerical example.
Suppose the market for used newspaper can be described by the following equations:
QD = 600 - 10P
QS = 900
where QD is the quantity of used newspaper demanded by recycling centers.All prices are measured in cents per hundred pounds and all quantities are measured in pounds.
(a)Compute the initial equilibrium price (P1)and quantity (Q1)of used newspaper.Then identify how much used newspaper gets recycled and how much ends up in landfills.Is there a "glut" of used newspaper? Explain your answers briefly.
(b)Suppose the U.S.government required all newspaper publishers to purchase 25 percent of their newsprint from recycled newspaper.Suppose also that this requirement would shift the demand curve for used newspaper to either QD = 400 - 10P or QD = 1200 - 10P.Which demand curve would result from the 25 per cent recycling requirement?
(c)Based on your answer in (b),compute the new equilibrium price (P2)and quantity (Q2)of used newspaper.Now how much used newspaper gets recycled and how much ends up in landfills?
(d)Would the 25 per cent requirement help eliminate the alleged "glut" of used newspaper in the United States? Explain briefly with reference to your answers in (c).
(e)Draw an appropriate graph of your solutions in (a)and (c).


Definitions:

Regression Analysis

A statistical method for estimating the relationships among variables, allowing for prediction of one variable based on the value of others.

Error Variable

A variable that represents the difference between observed values and the values predicted by a model.

Distribution

In statistics, the way in which values of a variable or group of variables are spread or dispersed across possible values.

Coefficient of Determination

Represents the ratio of explained variance by the model to the total variance, indicating the model's explanatory power.

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